Washington, May 5 (ANI): US Senator Hillary Clinton, Democrats' Presidential candidature hopeful, has said that Pakistan's tribal areas were the safe haven of al Qaeda and the Taliban. She said the terrorist organizations were spread in various places in these tribal areas.
"It's in Pakistan," said Hillary Clinton while replying to a question if she knew where the primary haven for the Taliban was.
On being asked to name a place, she said: "Well, it's along the border. And there are a couple of different places. It's not just one place."
Admitting that Quetta was the place from where Al Qaeda was commanded and controlled, she said: "But that's not the only place. I think there may be a concentration of Taliban in Quetta. But because they are primarily Pashtuns, they are all through that area."
She also blamed the Bush administration for failing to tackle this problem. "If you had more troops committed so that we could prevent the infiltration and their being able to carry out their missions inside Afghanistan," the Dawn quoted her as saying.
"If we were able to make a stronger case to the newly elected government in Pakistan that their livelihoods and lives depended upon us working together to take out Al Qaeda and the Taliban, we didn't make that argument."
Clinton said that the United States should have been supporting the pro-democracy movement in Pakistan. "They just had an election where the religious party lost. Why? Because the Pakistani people do not want to have this creeping terrorism and extremism," she added.
She agreed with the suggestion that unless the Pakistani government takes action against the Taliban inside Pakistan, the situation will never improve no matter how many American troops were sent there. "I agree with that, but what is the best way to persuade them to do that?" she asked.
She disagreed with the suggestion that the best way to persuade Pakistan to fight terrorism would be to cut off aid. She said financial aid should not be cut for Pakistan because democracy was once again prevailing there.
"We now have a new government there. We have got to make it clear to the new government in Pakistan that we will stand with them, we will support democracy. We have not put all our eggs into Musharraf's basket," the Dawn quoted her as saying.
It was in Pakistan's self-interest to fight the terrorists and that they were not doing so just to please the Americans, she added.
Pakistanis believe in "kill, fight, shoot" view of Islam
Pakistanis misinterpret Islam by assuming that it requires them to "Kill, fight, shoot", and this view of Islam is quite common in Pakistan, said a Turkish Muslim teacher living in Karachi.
He said that schools nourished by Saudi and American money dating back to the 1980s, have spread radicalism through the poorest parts of society".
Mesut Kacmaz, the Turkish Muslim teacher, complained that Pakistanis everywhere assume that he was not a Muslim because he had no beard.
Kacmaz is part of a group of Turkish educators who have come to this battleground with an entirely different vision of Islam. "Theirs is moderate, flexible, and comfortably co-exists with the West while remaining distinct from it. Like Muslim Peace Corps volunteers, they promote this approach in schools, which are now established in more than 80 countries, Muslim and Christian," the Daily Times quoted a New York Times report as saying.
According to the NYT report, Pakistan's Tribal Areas have become a refuge for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, while the battle against fundamentalism rests on young people and their education, which is extremely weak. The poorest Pakistanis cannot afford to send their children to free public schools, which require fees for books and uniforms. Some choose to send their children to madrassas, which, like aid organisations, offer free food and clothing.
Turkish schools, which have expanded to seven cities in Pakistan, cannot transform the country on their own, but they offer an alternative approach that could help reduce the influence of extremists, the report adds. These schools prescribe a strong Western curriculum, with courses taught in English, from maths and science to literature. They do not teach religion beyond the single, state-required class in Islamic studies. (ANI)
